Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon Offers Avatar: Seven Havens Fans a Similar Fantasy Adventure

A young girl rides her trusted animal companion across the apocalyptic desert of a shattered world. What is she looking for? What happened to this world? Will she be the one to save it?

When I first saw the early trailer for Avatar: Seven Havens, Pavi was riding her cat-monkey Geet through the Harshlands. It reminded me right away of Raya and the Last Dragon. My eldest daughter has watched the Disney movie dozens of times over the past year or so, which probably helped.

The opening images are strikingly similar, down to the framing. Both heroes cross the desert from left to right in a wide shot. Raya (Kelly Marie Tran) rides Tuk Tuk (Alan Tudyk), a cheerful, bear-sized creature with a hard shell that can curl into a rideable ball. The visual and cinematic similarities are only the beginning.

If Seven Havens has you hungry for more animated epics about young heroes crossing a broken world, Raya and the Last Dragon is a great movie to watch. It’s easy to stream on Disney Plus.

Raya and the Last Dragon sends its hero across a fractured world

Long ago, the people of Kumandra lived in harmony with dragons. Then the Druun arrived. These mindless storm spirits turn every living thing in their path to stone. The dragons sacrificed themselves to stop the invasion and left behind a magical gem that saved humanity. The survivors fought over the gem, and the fight split Kumandra into five lands: Heart, Fang, Spine, Talon, and Tail.

Five hundred years later, the Heart tribe protects the gem. Raya is the young daughter of Heart’s chief, Benja (Daniel Dae Kim). She has trained her whole life to guard the gem and is essentially a warrior princess. Benja calls a meeting of the tribal leaders in the hope of restoring peace to Kumandra. Namaari (Gemma Chan), the warrior princess of Fang, betrays Raya. A fight over the gem breaks out among the five tribes, and the gem shatters into five pieces. The Druun return. Six years later, that is the apocalypse we see in the opening scene.

Raya sets out to find Sisu (Awkwafina), the last dragon, and to recover the gem pieces so she can drive the Druun away once more. Their journey takes them across Kumandra, where they meet people who have learned to survive by looking out for themselves. Along the way, Raya realizes she needs help from people she has every reason to distrust.

Here the story becomes more than a tour of a fantasy map. Raya struggles to believe in the dream for Kumandra that her father once had. Sisu keeps insisting that people can be trusted. The journey tests both beliefs. No single hero can make Kumandra whole by collecting jagged pieces of a magic stone. People who have spent generations treating one another as enemies have to choose to work together.

Related reading: Raya and the Last Dragon’s resemblance to Avatar: The Last Airbender is good for fantasy.

That theme resonates strongly in Avatar: Seven Havens. Catastrophe has fractured its world too, leaving people to survive in isolated pockets and plagued by storms. Raya and the Last Dragon imagines what it takes to mend a world broken in this way. The answer lies in overcoming the fear and mistrust that keep people divided, and no outside enemy has to be defeated first. In Kumandra, the Druun can only be banished when Raya, Namaari, and members of other tribes choose to trust each other and bring the gem back together.

Seven Havens is still working its way toward that answer. Even so, the latest batch of episodes, released Oct. 23, makes it clear that breaking down the boundaries between fractured pockets of society is the key to healing the world. You don’t need to know Avatar or care about the parallels to enjoy Raya and the Last Dragon. It’s a solid, self-contained fantasy adventure that’s fun for all ages. It remains overlooked largely because of timing. The film was originally set for release in late 2020, but the pandemic led to a delayed hybrid release in theaters and on Disney Plus.

At 107 minutes, Raya and the Last Dragon is a brisk adventure with colorful landscapes, entertaining action, and a likable cast. Awkwafina gives Sisu a goofy warmth that never undercuts her earnestness, and Raya’s chain sword is just plain cool. The real payoff comes when Raya learns she can’t put Kumandra back together by herself.

That lesson matters in Seven Havens too, and it gives the opening scene of both stories a poignant weight in retrospect. Both heroes begin their adventures alone in the desert. Raya ends her journey with friends and loved ones beside her. We assume Seven Havens is headed to the same place. After all, isn’t that the most important thing anybody can do in the midst of an apocalypse?

Source: Polygon